“Racing Shadows” and Other Promptly Written Stories

by Narrative Style

Racing Shadows

Author's Note:

This Story is a: Adventure/Drama

Description: Rainbow Dash sets out to find Spitfire after Wind Rider's confession, but finds more is at stake than she thought. An old enemy is there to meet her.

Get to the Crystal Mountains, get Spitfire, get back in time for the show. Easy, right?

It's never that easy.

Rainbow Dash looped around the castle and headed north, lining up with the snow-capped peaks, too far distant yet to see. Her wings beat four times for each breath she took, in-in-out-out, in-in-out-out. Her ears strained to listen for signs of life beyond the wind. She didn't hear anything yet, but she knew she wasn't alone in the sky. They would be there.

Sure enough, two dark shapes dropped out of a cloud up ahead, moving to cut her off. Pegasi in jumpsuits of dark purple and black. Shadowbolts.

Dash slowed to a hover a few meters away, eyeing her opponents. Their manes were blue, their wings grey. She recognized them, though she only knew the name of one. “Belladonna! I knew you were behind this!” Dash shouted, pointing her hoof.

The Shadowbolt mare slid her goggles up to her forehead in order to match the rainbow pony's glare. “Did you, now? No matter, it's too late. You're never going to be a Wonderbolt!”

Dash paused, then smirked. “Hah, my name's already been cleared. Now wing aside so I can get Spitfire.”

But instead of retreating, Belladonna crossed her forehooves and grinned back. “Maybe for now, but what happens when they find Spitfire's body with your own hoofprints on it?”

As the words sank in, Rainbow's eyes widened, before narrowing to slits. She tensed her body in preparation to dive. “I was wondering where your other henchpony was. But if I know you, it's not too late. You wouldn't be trying to delay me if the deed were already done!” With that, she dropped thirty feet, sweeping under the Shadowbolts before regaining altitude on the other side. They turned to follow her rainbow trail, racing her to the mountains.

The young Pegasus pushed her limits, knowing Spitfire had only minutes. She glanced back to see that the Shadowbolts were no match for her speed; they were steadily falling behind. But she wasn't out of the woods yet. The nameless stallion reached behind him and pulled out a portable lightning canister, emblazoned with the Shadowbolts' winged-skull insignia.

‘Not this time!’ Dash thought, before curving around a cloud and kicking it towards her pursuer. The fiend barreled through it easily, but by then Rainbow Dash had made a U-turn and was right in front of him. She planted her hind hooves firmly against his shoulders, launching herself backwards at the distant mountains with the force of a sonic boom.

The stallion was sent flying back toward Canterlot, not under his own power. He dropped the canister during his futile struggle to regain control, and it fell out of sight. His boss wasn't so easily taken, however. As Dash flew, the world around her darkened, as if the afternoon sunlight was being wrung right out of the air. The effect was strongest around the remaining Shadowbolt, cloaking her in a darkness that was almost tangible.

Rainbow Dash was caught off-guard; she'd never seen a Shadowbolt summon their Nightmare Powers in broad daylight before. Thinking fast, she drew upon her exceptional knowledge of flight tricks, crossing her hooves that it would work.

The dark cloud surrounding Belladonna began to twist around in a corkscrew, pushing a stream of shadow energy out behind like a rocket as she gained speed. It was now or never. Rainbow Dash veered off and went into a tight spin, nearly catching her own tail with her snout. She felt the static on her fur as she spent her precious seconds of lead building up to one of her finale-class maneuvers.

Just as her pursuer caught up, she let it fly, sending bolts of lightning arcing through the sky in a brilliant flash. The Buccaneer Blaze.

As soon as her vision cleared, she pushed her wings for all they had left, speeding after the Shadowbolt. It had worked; the wreath of shadow around the purple-suited mare had been blown away by the light of the amazing move. Dash passed her in moments, this time leaving Belladonna far behind as she fought to recover from the unexpected counter.

The mountains now loomed large on the horizon, and it was only a short time before Dash reached them. Her keen eyesight spotted Spitfire's signature orange mane on the southwest slopes. But as she approached, a second shape caught her eye: A dark-clad figure was sneaking up behind the older mare. Rainbow Dash shouted a warning, but she was too far away.

Locking her jaw, she pressed her wings to her sides and dove. She made it just in time, colliding with the Shadowbolt moments before he could pounce. The sharp crack of the impact caused Spitfire to turn around just in time to see both her attacker and her savior drop out of sight down the cliff-face, leaving plumes of dust in their wake.

They tumbled down the mountainside, taking turns against the rocky slope, grappling for the upper hoof. Neither dared open their wings and risk exposing the delicate appendages to the harsh stone. They both knew that the one on top when they reached the bottom might well be the only one to get back up. Mere seconds from that crushing stop, however, something grabbed Rainbow's hind leg and pulled.

Yanked free of the tumble and of her opponent, Dash momentarily hung astonished in Spitfire's grip before she remembered to flap. Righting herself, she nodded to Spitfire before scanning down the mountain for the Shadowbolt.

A trail of dust and broken rock led to a dark splotch on an outcropping near the base of the cliff. It didn't move.

Turning back to Spitfire, Rainbow Dash saluted. “Spitfire, Ma'am! Good news: Your mom's not sick.”

The Wonderbolt reached up and removed her flight goggles. “What's going on here, Rainbow Dash?” She paused as Dash's words reached her brain. “What do you mean, she's not sick?”

“Well, the note you got was planted by Wind Rider to lure you away and blame it on me so that I would be banned from the Wonderbolts and never be able to beat his flying record, but it was actually a plot by the Shadowbolts to lure you out here to kill you so that they could pin that on me and take both of us out at once.”

“…Huh.” Spitfire flew off to the side as she thought that over. After a moment, she looked back over her shoulder at Dash. “Thanks for the save. Should we head back?”

Dash laughed. “It was nothing. Besides, you saved me back.” Her smile fell away as she saw something behind Spitfire. “But I don't think we're done, yet. Here come the other two.”

Sure enough, Belladonna and her first goon were closing in. Spitfire snapped her goggles back on. “You ready?”

Rainbow Dash popped her joints before taking position next to her superior. “Always. I'll take the mare.”

Spitfire smirked. “I'll come help when I'm done with the stallion, then.”

Dash gave a single ‘Ha!’, and then they raced forward to meet the enemy.

-Excerpt from Rainbow D. Dash's award-winning autobiography Awesome As I Wanna Be, soon to be a major motion picture.